UConn talk on McGraw's bench

[trb123]

Boneyarders may take a look at this thread on O'Brien Mcgraw's bench that shows how the Irish fans stay au courant with our coaching, our recruiting and other aspects of our basketball.

Here is a typo corrected sample quote about Geno which is both accurate and laudatory. Although we should refrain from dragging the contents of other websites here, I just could not help it.

Most coaches (I'm talking about those who are able to coach up their players, not the people who have no business coaching in the first place), no matter what the sport, have limits. Some can only coach up average kids to be good and can do nothing with elite players. Others can only coach elite talent and can do nothing with average participants.

Auriemma is unique in that he has been able to successfully coach up three different talent levels. He took poor/average talent and coached them up to be good. He started getting good talent and coached them up to be great. He started getting great talent and has morphed them into what we now see.

Are the Irish fans worried about the UConn juggernaut? Not as much you would think and this is why they are not.

Geno may or may not be a great coach, or a great person. I don't know him. But, I could have coached some of those teams to a national championship. OK, I couldn't, but Dillon could have.

Here I would like to remind Boneyarders that Muffet Mcgraw's prehistoric bench software does not accept smileys.

 

[Carnac]

Boneyarders may take a look at this thread on O'Brien Mcgraw's bench that shows how the Irish fans stay au courant with our coaching, our recruiting and other aspects of our basketball.

Here is a typo corrected sample quote about Geno which is both accurate and laudatory. Although we should refrain from dragging the contents of other websites here, I just could not help it.


Are the Irish fans worried about the UConn juggernaut? Not as much you would think and this is why they are not.

Here I would like to remind Boneyarders that Muffet Mcgraw's prehistoric bench software does not accept smileys.

Notre Dame replaced Tennessee as UConn's main rival almost a decade ago. Because of the bitterness, bad blood and vitriol that has manifested itself at times over that period, one can certainly understand the common Irish fan's disdain and in some cases disrespect for Geno, his legacy (his successes) and his unquestioned coaching abilities.

Notre Dame has not reached the final 4 the last two years. They last won a national championship in 2001. That's 16 season's of futility and failure. UConn has been that bridge they could not cross on several occasions en route to the national championship. I'm sure there are no framed pictures of Geno hanging on the walls in the basketball offices of Notre Dame. It would seem to the casual observer on the outside looking in, that instead of worrying, or being concerned about what Geno and UConn are doing, they would focus their efforts, resources and resolve towards fixing their problems, and righting their own ship.

Notre Dame is an elite top 5 program. They have been for years. They put a highly competitive team on the floor nightly. In spite of injuries to key players, they somehow continue to win games and remain competitive. It would be fair to assume that not making the final four this year, in spite of their injuries, would be unacceptable to anyone connected with the program.

Without Lili Thompson, there’s not a healthy scholarship player left on the Notre Dame women’s basketball team defined foremost as a point guard, but Jackie Young and Arike Ogunbowale are expressing confidence that they can help fill a role that for them has historically taken a secondary seat to scoring.

“I think we’re just going to rotate me, Marina (Mabrey) and Arike at point,” Young said after practice Wednesday afternoon as the No. 2-ranked Irish (13-1, 2-0) prepared for Thursday night’s Atlantic Coast Conference visit by Miami (11-3, 1-0). “Our lineup will look a little different, but I think we’ll be fine there.”

Notre Dame has been forced into its latest shuffle of responsibilities by virtue of Sunday’s knee injury to Thompson late in the third quarter of a 96-73 victory at Wake Forest. With Thompson going down, things just got a little tougher for the Irish. Wishing all the best, and a speedy recovery to Lili T.

 

[Dillon77]

Boneyarders may take a look at this thread on O'Brien Mcgraw's bench that shows how the Irish fans stay au courant with our coaching, our recruiting and other aspects of our basketball.

Here is a typo corrected sample quote about Geno which is both accurate and laudatory. Although we should refrain from dragging the contents of other websites here, I just could not help it.


Are the Irish fans worried about the UConn juggernaut? Not as much you would think and this is why they are not.

Here I would like to remind Boneyarders that Muffet Mcgraw's prehistoric bench software does not accept smileys.

You're right....our software at McGraw's Bench is archaic. Drives me kerfluey. One reason why I spend a lot of time over here in the Boneyard, once I get off the Bench, is to use these fun little demons!

A few of The Boneyarders post on McGraw's Bench, although a few different tag names are used. I, for one, appreciate the input and different points of view. Sure, there are some "homers" there, as there are here or on other university websites. (That's one of the initial basic ideas behind a lot of these sites.)

However, I will say that the dillon77, Orangutan and Flying Choke you see here are one and the same over there.

And, btw, while my McGraw's Bench colleague Baba Ghanouj thinks I can coach the players UConn has as well as Geno, I don't think that's true.....I'd just need Maya, as well

 

[UcMiami]

While there has been some vitriol passed back and forth between ND and Uconn fans (and players) for the most part both groups have maintained a healthy respect within the rivalry. I think a lot of that has to do with the quality of moderation on both sites and a basic decency with most of the posters on the sites. I would say the same thing exists with the Baylor message board/fan base/players though because the games between the schools have been a lot less frequent the heat is definitely not turned up to the same level.

This is in sharp contrast to the TN message boards and moderators over the years where truly nasty stuff was actively encouraged/posted by moderators. It is another indication of how important moderators are to civil fan interactions.

 

[my2cents]

Both boards have lots of informed posters that add a lot of info on women's basketball. As a UCONN fan, ND is a program that deserves our respect, and its too bad about their injuries.

 

[Carnac]

While there has been some vitriol passed back and forth between ND and Uconn fans (and players) for the most part both groups have maintained a healthy respect within the rivalry. I think a lot of that has to do with the quality of moderation on both sites and a basic decency with most of the posters on the sites. I would say the same thing exists with the Baylor message board/fan base/players though because the games between the schools have been a lot less frequent the heat is definitely not turned up to the same level.

This is in sharp contrast to the TN message boards and moderators over the years where truly nasty stuff was actively encouraged/posted by moderators. It is another indication of how important moderators are to civil fan interactions.

One can only imagine the "colorful" language and the personal barbs and attacks that would have become common place here if not for the moderators.
I came here from a thread where there was little to no moderation or supervision of comments. I was there for 4 years because I didn't know about the BY. If I had, I'd have left much sooner. On occasion, it got a little dicey. The most heated arguments believe it or not was between Notre Dame fans and UConn fans. There were very few Tennessee fans that posted regularly. If you were thin skinned or easily offended, that was not the place to share a thought or an opinion.

The ND fans hated the UConn fans and visa versa. There were a couple of UConn fans that would say anything just to rile up the ND fans who always took the bait, and fired back. Admittedly, those two UConn fans were there not to offer anything of substance or value, but merely to pee in the kool-aid of ND posters, incur their wrath and raise their blood pressure. There were a couple of ND posters that were completely out of control, to the point of wishing physical harm to coaches and players.

Everyone knew everyone, and what school they where a fan of, and where their loyalties were. Believe it or not, a few of them are still there. Sometimes it would take as much as 24 hours for an abrasive or threating post to be removed. Too late, everyone had read it by then. There were fans on both sides that would not back down, and would defend their team and their fellow posters, right or wrong. It was so refreshing to come here where civility and common decency prevail, and leave that cesspool behind.

 

[YellwJcket999]

Thanks for the post. I will start reading their bb as well. I mainly read this board and RebKell's. I appreciate some of the insights delivered on both.
Shades is really active here and on RebKell. There are a few others as well. It's always nice to read an assessment of your team from another perspective.

 

[Charliebball]

You're right....our software at McGraw's Bench is archaic. Drives me kerfluey. One reason why I spend a lot of time over here in the Boneyard, once I get off the Bench, is use these fun little demons!

However, I will say that the dillon77, Orangutan and Flying Choke you see here are one and the same over there.

And, btw, while my McGraw's Bench Baba Ghanouj thinks I can coach the players UConn has as well as Geno, I don't think that's true.....I'd just need Maya, as well

Dillon - wow.......... I have a hard time navigating the ND fan sites............they really need some upgrading...............come to think of it, the vast majority of WBB fan sites are relatively prehistoric in their usability..............so sorry about all of those injuries............I can't even imagine what that would be like if it happened to so many UConn players..........I hope that if nothing else MM takes a long look at carrying more players from now on...............hey................UConn managed to carry a basically seven player team to the semi-finals so don't give up hope.............it can be done

 

[HuskyNan]

One can only imagine the "colorful" language and the personal barbs and attacks that would have become common place here if not for the moderators.
I came here from a thread where there was little to no moderation or supervision of comments. I was there for 4 years because I didn't know about the BY. If I had, I'd have left much sooner. On occasion, it got a little dicey. The most heated arguments believe it or not was between Notre Dame fans and UConn fans. There were very few Tennessee fans that posted regularly. If you were thin skinned or easily offended, that was not the place to share a thought or an opinion.

The ND fans hated the UConn fans and visa versa. There were a couple of UConn fans that would say anything just to rile up the ND fans who always took the bait, and fired back. admittedly, those two UConn fans were there not to offer anything of substance or value, but merely to pee in the kool-aid of ND posters, incur their wrath and raise their blood pressure. There were a couple of ND posters that were completely out of control, to the point of wishing physical harm to coaches and players.

Everyone knew every one, so we all knew where a poster stood. Sometimes it would take as much as 24 hours for an abrasive or threating post to be removed. Everyone had read it by then. There were fans on both sides that would not back down, and defended their program and their fellow posters, right or wrong. It was so refreshing to come here, and leave that cesspool behind.

In one of the Boneyard's previous incarnations - I think when we were a Rivals.com board - we had a few ND trolls that made the board pretty miserable. Something Prof or Professor Something (NOT BaylorProf, who's a great visitor), Irish Leprechaun (or similar), and SouthBendTim. We mods had to practically live on the board to keep the flame wars banked.

I think that period was when cbeibel stopped posting, and I've always been sorry about that. He added great value to the board from an ND fan's perspective. My kudos to the ND fans that stuck it out because UConn fans were, frankly, awful to the ND fans because of the trolls.

 

[Dillon77]

In one of the Boneyard's previous incarnations - I think when we were a Rivals.com board - we had a few ND trolls that made the board pretty miserable. Something Prof or Professor Something (NOT BaylorProf, who's a great visitor), Irish Leprechaun (or similar), and SouthBendTim. We mods had to practically live on the board to keep the flame wars banked.

I think that period was when cbeibel stopped posting, and I've always been sorry about that. He added great value to the board from an ND fan's perspective. My kudos to the ND fans that stuck it out because UConn fans were, frankly, awful to the ND fans because of the trolls.

cbeibel posts on McGraw's Bench and still adding value.

 

[BroadwayVa]

You're right....our software at McGraw's Bench is archaic. Drives me kerfluey. One reason why I spend a lot of time over here in the Boneyard, once I get off the Bench, is to use these fun little demons!

A few of The Boneyarders post on McGraw's Bench, although a few different tag names are used. I, for one, appreciate the input and different points of view. Sure, there are some "homers" there, as there are here or on other university websites. (That's one of the initial basic ideas behind a lot of these sites.)

However, I will say that the dillon77, Orangutan and Flying Choke you see here are one and the same over there.

And, btw, while my McGraw's Bench colleague Baba Ghanouj thinks I can coach the players UConn has as well as Geno, I don't think that's true.....I'd just need Maya, as well

That's why I like you-sense of humor. I do like Uconn having the advantage--so respectfully, should the occasion occur---please coach Muffetts team!
Two things stood out in your post: 1. You are humble : "I don't think that's true" 2. You are not greedy: "I'd just need Maya, as well" (I would have assumed Maya, Stew, Moriah, Sue, Dt.

I must say for one Uconn Byer---I am heart broken with your remark: "One reason why I spent a lot of time over here in the Boneyard, once I get off the bench is to use he little demons."--all the time I thought it was your love for us.

 

[cbraarj]

No other team has replaced Tennessee in their rivalry with Uconn! 1) Muffet Mcgraw is not even close to Pat Summit! 2) ND won only one Big East Tournament Title! 3) ND won only one NC ( oldest grandson born in 2001 and will be 17 this year ). 4) Uconn is like 35-11 against ND and 13-9 against Tenn. having a 3 game winning streak! 5) Uconn and Tennessee Rivalry was the 2nd best rivalry in all of College Basketball ( ESPN ) behind Duke and North Carolina Men! This rivalry was relevant from 1995 until it ended in 2007! Notre Dame had a couple good years against them! Uconn and Tennesse stand alone in Womens College Basketball!

 

[HoopsFan21]

No other team has replaced Tennessee in their rivalry with Uconn! 1) Muffet Mcgraw is not even close to Pat Summit! 2) ND won only one Big East Tournament Title! 3) ND won only one NC ( oldest grandson born in 2001 and will be 17 this year ). 4) Uconn is like 35-11 against ND and 13-9 against Tenn. having a 3 game winning streak! 5) Uconn and Tennessee Rivalry was the 2nd best rivalry in all of College Basketball ( ESPN ) behind Duke and North Carolina Men! This rivalry was relevant from 1995 until it ended in 2007! Notre Dame had a couple good years against them! Uconn and Tennesse stand alone in Womens College Basketball!

Don't look now, but the rivalry with ND is now almost as old as the one with Tennessee. Don't forget, the rivalry got going when Diggins was at ND and Maya was still at UConn. That was nearly a decade ago.

 

[HuskyNan]

No other team has replaced Tennessee in their rivalry with Uconn! 1) Muffet Mcgraw is not even close to Pat Summit! 2) ND won only one Big East Tournament Title! 3) ND won only one NC ( oldest grandson born in 2001 and will be 17 this year ). 4) Uconn is like 35-11 against ND and 13-9 against Tenn. having a 3 game winning streak! 5) Uconn and Tennessee Rivalry was the 2nd best rivalry in all of College Basketball ( ESPN ) behind Duke and North Carolina Men! This rivalry was relevant from 1995 until it ended in 2007! Notre Dame had a couple good years against them! Uconn and Tennesse stand alone in Womens College Basketball!

How many SEC titles would Tennessee have won if UConn had been in the league?

 

[cbraarj]

How many SEC titles would Tennessee have won if UConn had been in the league?

Why does this even matter?

 

[cbraarj]

Don't look now, but the rivalry with ND is now almost as old as the one with Tennessee. Don't forget, the rivalry got going when Diggins was at ND and Maya was still at UConn. That was nearly a decade ago.

Maya lost one game to Notre Dame in 2011 FF! Big East Regular and Tournament Champions, Uconn! Notre Dame had 3 good years of beating Uconn ( 2001, 2012, 2013 ). Uconn leading series 36-11 and Notre Dame replaces Tennessee. I dont think so!

 

[OldAlum]

You seem to be in an exclamatory mood!!!

 

[HuskyNan]

Why does this even matter?

Because you're dinging ND for not winning any Big East titles. Look how many ACC titles ND has won since it went to that league - all 4 regular season and tournament titles in the years since it joined. The Irish are 62-2 in the ACC, a league with Duke, Louisville, Syracuse, Florida State, and Miami, which had a nice run for a few years. If UConn hadn't been in the Big East, ND might have won titles there as well. And if UConn were in the SEC, Tennessee wouldn't have won as many conference championships.

ND won games against UConn because of great players (Ruth Riley, Skylar Diggins) and strong supporting casts. Guess what? That's the case with Tennessee, too. UConn lost 9 games to Tennessee, as follows:

3/29/96 Tenn 88-83 OT (M. Marciniak, C. Holdsclaw)
3/24/97 Tenn 91-81 (C. Holdsclaw, K. Jollie)
1/3/98 Tenn 84-69 (C. Holdsclaw, T. Catchings, S. Randall)
1/10/99 Tenn 92-81 (C. Holdsclaw, T. Catchings, S. Randall)
2/2/00 Tenn 72-71 (T. Catchings, S. Randall)
2/1/01 Tenn 92-88 (T. Catchings, S. Randall)
1/8/05 Tenn 68-67 (Candace Parker)
1/7/06 Tenn 89-80 (Candace Parker)
1/6/07 Tenn 70-64 (Candace Parker)

One last thing - the rivalry took on epic proportions because of ESPN. If UConn and Tennessee just played periodically like, say, UConn and Baylor, there probably wouldn't have been the hype that we saw. But given the ratings of the first two UConn-Tenn matchups, ESPN pimped the rivalry and set up unprecedented home and home regular season games for the teams. Then ESPN trumpeted every little bit of gossip that would fuel the fire, e.g. "Geno calls Tennessee the Evil Empire!!!!!". Geno never hated Tennessee, he just wanted to beat the best team out there but everything soured after the sports tabloid network got through with the teams. And the ridiculous NCAA complaint initiated by a couple of the more whackadoo Tennessee fans from posts on the Boneyard was played up to gigantic proportions by ESPN. I don't feel sorry for the network at all that it's losing out on revenue because the teams don't play and am reveling in the irony that ESPN is a victim of its own machinations.

 

[cbraarj]

All you did in response to my question is put Uconn down because of their relationship with ESPN, Nan! You said Uconn was pimped out by ESPN is a great way to refer to the program that people on this site care about! I wonder how Geno and CD would feel about being pimped out to ESPN!

 

[UcMiami]

No other team has replaced Tennessee in their rivalry with Uconn! 1) Muffet Mcgraw is not even close to Pat Summit! 2) ND won only one Big East Tournament Title! 3) ND won only one NC ( oldest grandson born in 2001 and will be 17 this year ). 4) Uconn is like 35-11 against ND and 13-9 against Tenn. having a 3 game winning streak! 5) Uconn and Tennessee Rivalry was the 2nd best rivalry in all of College Basketball ( ESPN ) behind Duke and North Carolina Men! This rivalry was relevant from 1995 until it ended in 2007! Notre Dame had a couple good years against them! Uconn and Tennesse stand alone in Womens College Basketball!

Don't look now, but the rivalry with ND is now almost as old as the one with Tennessee. Don't forget, the rivalry got going when Diggins was at ND and Maya was still at UConn. That was nearly a decade ago.

I would say that the Uconn/TN rivalry does stand out because during that 13 year period from 1995 - 2007 the two teams won 9 of the championships and they trade #1 rankings back and forth for most of those years, and they really were the only two teams with national profile and who consistently received national TV exposure. But... They played typically once during the regular season and sometimes once in the NCAAs until TN took it's ball and went home. And they haven't played since.

The Uconn/ND series actually started in 1996 and they have played a minimum of one game every year since (and only one year did they not meet during the regular season.) Uconn won the first 11 games in the series, but in 2000-2001 ND went 2-1 (one of those wins coming before either Shea or Sveta went down.) Including that year and ending in 2005 the 5 year period saw Uconn compile a 6-4 record against ND. From 2005 to 2010 Uconn went 8-0 while ND struggled, but from the 2010-2011 season to present day, the record is 11-7 and they have both been ranked in the top 5 I think for every one of those games. And they have met at the final four in 5 of the seven tournaments in that time. In the Geno era, I believe the ND four game win streak against Uconn is the longest ever - TN had two different 3 game win streaks on of which is still active. And the two teams combined for 10 championships in 16 years 2001-2016.

Tough not to recognize the ND rivalry as right up there. Perhaps the fact that in the same 22 years Uconn/TN only have played 22 times while Uconn/ND have played 47 times has created a diluted the perception of the strength of the rivalry because it happens too frequently. And ... if Uconn/TN had been playing home and home for the past 9 years Uconn would likely have an 18 game winning streak to boast about and the 'great rivalry' would have lost all its shine!

 

[Phil]

No other team has replaced Tennessee in their rivalry with Uconn! 1) Muffet Mcgraw is not even close to Pat Summit! 2) ND won only one Big East Tournament Title! 3) ND won only one NC ( oldest grandson born in 2001 and will be 17 this year ). 4) Uconn is like 35-11 against ND and 13-9 against Tenn. having a 3 game winning streak! 5) Uconn and Tennessee Rivalry was the 2nd best rivalry in all of College Basketball ( ESPN ) behind Duke and North Carolina Men! This rivalry was relevant from 1995 until it ended in 2007! Notre Dame had a couple good years against them! Uconn and Tennesse stand alone in Womens College Basketball!

Sorry, but I totally disagree.

I care a lot about women's basketball history (even that which occurred before either Tennessee or UConn were powers), but the rivalry with Tennessee, as intense as it was at the time, is now ancient history.

The last game was over a decade ago. We are literally recruiting players who have no memory of a UConn - Tennessee game (I'm assuming a five-year-old probably wasn't watching and if she did she doesn't really remember it now).

The rivalry would Notre Dame hasn't quite reach the intensity of that prior rivalry but it has completely supplanted it.

1) Muffet Mcgraw is not even close to Pat Summit!

This is close to irrelevant as well as being inaccurate. (And at the risk of being a nitpicker shouldn't someone who values that rivalry know how to spell her name?) Pat Summit deserves a place on the Mount Rushmore of women's basketball coaches. But it probably isn't quite in that same rarefied here but she is one of the top coaches of all time. However debating the relative merits of the coaches is barely relevant to the question about the rivalry.

2) ND won only one Big East Tournament Title!

As Nan has already eloquently pointed out, the lack of tournament titles as a function of them being in the same conference.

5) Uconn and Tennessee Rivalry was the 2nd best rivalry in all of College Basketball

The key word in that sentence: "was". Thanks for helping to make my case.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

That was a rivalry game I had a near heart attack over last November. I think ND players see a huge rivalry with UConn, though I like our side of the rivalry better:

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Then there is Muffet the snarky:

 

[HuskyNan]

All you did in response to my question is put Uconn down because of their relationship with ESPN, Nan! You said Uconn was pimped out by ESPN is a great way to refer to the program that people on this site care about! I wonder how Geno and CD would feel about being pimped out to ESPN!

I sai "pimped the rivalry" not the team

 

[baggerbob]

That was a rivalry game I had a near heart attack over last November. I think ND players see a huge rivalry with UConn, though I like our side of the rivalry better:

Stewie thought it was a rivalry, she kept Notre Dame from winning against UConn, after the semi-final game her Freshman year.